If you ever see a prospective new member walk into the club, please be on your best selling behaviour! We constantly want to grow our fleet and increase the depth and engagement of our membership base – and new members are a great way to do that.In case you are wondering, our racks look full, but they are never actually full. There are boats on Level 5 that are rarely or even never used – and we keep them there because they pay their way. But, if we can replace them with an active sailor’s boat, we will. All members whose boats are infrequently used are aware of this. So, if someone asks about a rack spot, the answer is ALWAYS YES. Get their details and pass them on to Emily Ball or one of the Flag Officers.And in case the idea of being on Level 5 is a turn
Category: Latest from Double Bay Sailing Club
More Sails Arriving
NB Sailsports delivered a further batch of our bulk sail order to DBSC last week. If your sail is in the batch, you will have been emailed to let you know. If yours is not here yet, it will be soon – NB has just 3 sails to complete and is telling us these should be available by Saturday.
Wild Winds force Cancellation of Pointscore
Racing was cancelled on Saturday due to wild westerly winds that were consistently approaching 25 kts with very frequent gusts averaging well over 30 kts (and highest BOM readings of 37 kts).But the time was not wasted. Brett Beyer stayed for a Q&A session for a couple of hours on the front deck, where summer was finally here and the wind only occasionally made it far enough into the bay to blow chairs off the deck into the water!Other than the Q&A session, the BBSP session scheduled for today was not held. The club has offered to reimburse BBSP participants for the cost of the session that was missed. If you would like a reimbursement, please let Justin Davey know. If we do not hear from you this week, we will assume you have waived the reimbursement (effectively making a donation of the reimbursable amount to the club), in which
Ray-Bans Found
Someone left a pair of Ray-Bans in a case on Saturday. Paul Adam has them safely stored in the kitchen. If anyone is looking for them on Wednesday evening they are on the kitchen bench beside the microwave.
Top Tip
Pippa Batchelor has shared an interesting tool for members looking to better understand rules and strategy by visually sketching out different sailing situations. It’s a drawing tool called Boat Scenario. It is an ideal companion for training sessions, rule learning, strategy explanations and more.Try Boat Scenario (free Download) HERE.
Up Next
Wednesday, 30 October, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing / BBTPSaturday, 2 November, 9am – Learn to RaceSaturday, 6 November, 2pm Start – Club Championship, Heats 5 & 6, followed by a BBQSunday, 3 November, 2pm Start – Big Boat RaceWednesday, 6 November, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing / BBTPSaturday, 9 November, 2pm Start – Sprint RacingSaturday, 9 November & Sunday, 10 November – Laser State Championships at George’s River (see info above)
Twilights Twinkle
It’s looking like another perfect evening for twilights tonight. A warm and sunny 12 knots are predicted. Last Wednesday we had 19 boats participate. It was an awesome afternoon with a series of mini races run by Brett, and individual coaching tailored to each of the participants in the BBTP and their development stage. Everyone participated in some very exciting close racing in a brisk 15-20kt breeze. Let’s keep the big numbers rolling as we get further into those long warm evenings!
Race Report
The wind forecasts were all over the place for last Saturday afternoon. From some models, it looked like there might not be enough wind to race… Boy was that prediction wrong! What eventuated was a strong, shifty 22 knot WSW breeze with some 30+ knot bullets that saw much of the fleet in the drink. It was surely a day you needed to keep your wits about you and your downhaul cranked on. Those who managed to keep their boats upright and took advantage of high port tacks won the day. The day was so challenging that several boats did not finish within 15 minutes of the lead boat, giving them a DNF (S.I. 18.3). The Afternoon was a combined Club Champs and Spring Pontscore; congratulations to the hardy victors. The results were: Championship – Full Rigs: Campbell Patton (Championship Heat 3) and Luke Parker (Championship Heat 4); Radials: Otto Henry (Championship Heats 3 & 4). Pointscore (after
Top Tip – Knots and splicing. Do you know a hitch from a bend?
Written by Tim Heath I’m not sure if this is a sailing tip or a confession. Probably both. While learning to sail I have developed an interest, ok a bit of an obsession, with learning how to tie knots and splice ropes. I find myself practising them when daydreaming or watching Netflix?! In the process of furnishing my habit, I have come a across a couple of cheap, excellent e-resources that I think would be useful to normal people who sail dinghies:1. Animated Knots (by Grog) is a phone app which costs $8 and is a pretty comprehensive compendium of knot videos, including notes on usage, and pros and cons for each knot. There are also splicing videos. You can watch some of them online but this app stores them all offline on your smartphone.
2. Rope splicing
Up Next…
Wednesday, 23 October, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing / BBTPSaturday, 26 October, 2pm Start – Spring Pointscore, Heats 7 & 8 Wednesday, 30 October, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing / BBTPSaturday, 2 November, 9am – Learn to RaceSaturday, 2 November, 2pm Start – Club Championship, Heats 5 & 6, followed by a BBQSunday, 3 November, 2pm Start – Big Boat Race